Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
We know that the pillars of civilization are cheap energy, meritocracy, Law and Order, and free speech and all four of those pillars are currently under attack. – Michael Shellenberger
I would add a fifth pillar: cheap and available food. But this quote is several years old. The assault on farmers may not have been as obvious then as the attacks on the other four.
All five pillars provide stability. It is hard to think clearly on an empty stomach. Cheap energy permits things to be done that would otherwise be too costly to entertain. Not just freedom to travel, but keeping your home warm enough to be comfortable. Meritocracy permits the most capable to advance to positions of leadership and trust rather than accidents of birth. Law and order provide the confidence to build and create. You don't have to worry that your goods will be arbitrarily plundered. Finally free speech permits information to flow to provide the basis for sound decisions.
The loss of any one of these produces scarcity. The loss of any of these increases prices, pushing those at the bottom of society (who have less income and wealth) to the wall, while the powerful retain their first call on what goods remain available. Lose two or more and crisis results - crisis from which the powerful are generally best insulated. They are the ones for whom civilization is most a luxury. It is those on the bottom of society for whom civilization is most a necessity, because a civilized society is the one most likely to permit them to advance out of poverty.
Make no mistake. In most civilizations those on the top are the ones who can most afford to be barbarians. For them civilization is a barrier to accumulating power. They are the one most likely to undermine civilization to increase their own power.
Will this mean their own lives will be diminished in terms of technology and luxury? Possibly. But the fruits of modern civilization, especially the one we enjoyed between the fall of the Soviet Union and 9-11, are so massive no single individual can enjoy all of them. Many of those at the top may decide the loss of potential future benefits do not outweigh the additional power they can gain through the ruin of civilization.
Discussion (10)
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Well said.
I am reminded of politicians who want to defund the police, while augmenting their personal security.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
"It is those on the bottom of society for whom civilization is most a necessity, because a civilized society is the one most likely to permit them to advance out of poverty."
Agreed, but not everyone wants Freedom.
"People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief of the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility."
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
These are all good points, but I would go back to even more basic principles for avoiding poverty: graduate high school, get married, then have kids (and stay married/don’t have kids with multiple partners). People with more money and education can, to some extent, smooth over the problems caused by not living life in the recommended order. Children raised in familial chaos are not going to thrive and succeed in a meritocracy. And yet wealthy and successful people endorse lifestyles that will result in chaos for most people.
*****
This post is a part of the Quote of the Day project at Ricochet. Please signup here.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
and those who installed barbed wire and 25,000 National Guard troops around the Capitol.
You're seeing five of ten comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.